Summary

Framing it as a continuation of Joseph’s journey, a man who had transformed from an immature youth to a person of integrity.

The sermon centered on Joseph’s time in prison, a situation that raised the question: If God was with Joseph, why was he in prison? Andy challenged the congregation to consider the implications of this question, suggesting that God’s presence doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of hardship. He contrasted a “me-centered Christianity” with a God-centered one, emphasizing that God’s plans and purposes often involve difficult circumstances. Andy referenced Romans 5, highlighting how suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope, a process clearly visible in Joseph’s life.

Andy explored the notion of God’s sovereignty, asserting that the story of Joseph is ultimately a part of God’s larger narrative. He reframed the chapter as a lesson on how to handle being in undesirable situations, whether caused by others’ actions, personal limitations, or other uncontrollable circumstances. He acknowledged the human tendency to respond to such situations with self-pity, blame, and withdrawal, but urged the congregation to consider a different, God-centered response.

He then outlined seven principles derived from Joseph’s experience:

1. God is with you: Drawing from Genesis 39:23, Andy stressed that God’s presence is a fact, not just a feeling. He encouraged the congregation to embrace this truth, recognizing that God is working out His plans even in difficult times. He referenced Psalm 23:4, reminding listeners that God’s presence brings comfort even in the darkest valleys.
2. Find a trusted friend: Observing the trust the prison warden had in Joseph, Andy highlighted the importance of having supportive relationships during challenging times.
3. Attend to what’s in front of you: Based on Genesis 40:4, Andy encouraged the congregation to focus on the tasks God has placed before them, rather than dwelling on their circumstances. He pointed out that Joseph’s faithfulness in small tasks ultimately led to his release.
4. Put others first: Andy noted Joseph’s concern for the dejected cupbearer and baker (Genesis 40:6-7), emphasizing the transformative power of serving others, even in personal hardship. He contrasted Joseph’s current behavior with his earlier self-centeredness.
5. Have confidence in God: Highlighting Joseph’s declaration in Genesis 40:8 that interpretations belong to God, Andy emphasized the importance of trusting God’s ability to work, even in seemingly hopeless situations. He used Richard Wurmbrandt’s testimony as an example of extreme confidence in God. He also challenged the congregation to bring their full passion to worship.
6. Use your gifts right where you are: Andy urged the congregation to use their God-given gifts, regardless of their circumstances. He used his own experience of delivering a word from God while feeling grumpy as an example.
7. Remain grounded: Drawing from Genesis 40:14-15, Andy emphasized the importance of acknowledging the reality of difficult situations while maintaining faith in God’s work. He cautioned against both spiritual escapism and despair, advocating for a balanced approach.

Andy concluded by encouraging those feeling trapped or restricted to respond to Jesus, reminding them that God’s presence and faithfulness can lead to freedom, just as it did for Joseph. He then prepared the church for a time of worship.

Bible References:

• Genesis 39:20-23
• Genesis 40:1-23
• Romans 5:3-5
• Psalm 23:4
• Genesis 40:4
• Genesis 40:6-7
• Genesis 40:8
• Genesis 40:14-15

Transcription

Good morning everybody.
Good morning in 146.
Good to see everyone here today.
So two weeks time is a really big weekend for us as a church, right?
Because the Saturday is the prayer day.
And we really want to be praying for breakthrough, for God to break through.
We want to be praying for God to break through in your life,
for you to have a fresh passion and heart and desire for what He wants to do.
We want to pray for God to break through in the life of MCF,
because we’re stuck in a few places and we want to see Him move.
We want to pray for God to break through in the communities around here,
because the things that we’re touching and seeing are just the beginning of stuff,
and there is so much more that He has in store for us.
We want to pray for God to break through as we talk about shifting to two services,
and we all get a bit wobbly about what’s that going to mean,
and the fact that if we go down that road and then it doesn’t quite work out,
can we come back, et cetera, et cetera.
We want to pray for breakthrough in 146 as a building,
because He’s given it to us as a resource, and we need financial breakthrough.
So Saturday the 8th of March is a day for praying for breakthrough.
Sunday the 9th of March is a day for putting hands in pockets.
And as we said last week, it’s a day of gift aid for the work at 146.
If you missed it last week, do get online and have a look at what was said about it.
Maybe we should probably send a note out that we read last week and give people an idea.
So Saturday and Sunday in two weeks’ time is a big weekend for us.
But beyond that, we’re in Genesis, chapter 40.
After today, 10 chapters left.
What are we going to do? How will we cope?
So I’m actually going to read the whole of chapter 40 today, which is quite unusual, but it’s not that long.
And the story is—there are a few things I want to pick out of it, so it’s good to read it.
I’m going to start in chapter 39, halfway through verse 20.
So we read this.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him.
He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.
The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Sometime later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.
Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.
The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt,
who were being held in prison, had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw they were dejected.
He asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house,
Why are your faces so sad today?
We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them.
Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.
So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream.
He said to him, In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches.
As soon as it bloodbudded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes.
Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and put the cup in his hand.
This is what it means, Joseph said to him, The three branches are three days.
Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position,
and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.
But when all goes well with you, remember me, and show me kindness.
Mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison,
for I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews,
and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.
When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation,
he said to Joseph, I too had a dream. On my head were three baskets of bread.
In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh,
but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.
This is what it means, Joseph said, The three baskets are three days.
Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree,
and the birds will eat away your flesh.
Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials.
He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials.
He restored the chief cupbearer to his position so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
But he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him.
So we’re well into the story of Joseph now, aren’t we?
And we’ve seen this guy change from an immature, naive, big mouth, incredibly annoying younger brother
into a guy who has actually grown into a man who has some integrity
and actually grown into a bit of a role model, even for us today.
Karen told us last week how, as he worked for Pottsford, how the Lord was with him
and what an important role he had working for Pottsford.
And we saw how he was a role model in how to deal with sexual temptation
when Pottsford’s wife tried to seduce him.
He fled multiple times, always with sexual temptation.
The response needs to be flee. Don’t dally, don’t hang on, don’t see what happens, just flee.
And Joseph modelled that brilliantly.
And then we now find him in this situation where he got trumped up charges
and Pottsford’s wife pretended that he had assaulted her and he now finds himself in prison.
He’s wrongly accused and completely unfairly thrown into prison.
It got me thinking, actually, later in the story, you know when he’s in charge of all the food in the land
and there’s the famine going on.
I wonder if Pottsford and his wife had to go to him to get some food. I wonder how that went.
Interesting.
But we read, and Karen reminded this several times last week, that the Lord was with him.
But then he’s thrown into prison. Yeah, but the Lord was with him.
But he’s thrown into prison. So is the Lord really with him?
What do we think? He’s thrown into prison.
I think we just need to be careful before we rush to answer that question
because it has implications for you and me.
Because the question is, does God really allow this type of thing?
Does God do this sort of thing of allowing his people to be thrown into prison in our story here?
Because if we say no, God wouldn’t do that sort of thing.
Then we’re saying that God is not in control, or he’s a bit nasty, or he’s fickle.
But if we say yes, God does do that sort of thing.
Then we are conceding that God could lead us through difficult and painful circumstances deliberately
to bring about his purpose, not only in our life, but his bigger purpose.
And actually, that is so often at odds with how, particularly in the West,
we view those difficult and most challenging of times.
Because we often have what I call, and we’ve talked about this before, a me-centered Christianity.
We live in a culture that is fiercely independent, almost violently independent in the West, in the UK right now.
It’s all about what you as an individual have and want and can get and your rights, and it’s all about that.
And then when we become a Christian and we come into the Church, we bring that same culture with us at first.
And Jesus has to work in our hearts to shift that because it’s such a stronghold.
And you know, we’re in danger sometimes of singing songs that are all about what Jesus can do for me,
and how he can help me, and how he can rescue me, and our prayers become about me, and how he changed me.
And as we read through scriptures and as we see stories like this, God has to kind of get our heads and go
and shift us to get out. There’s a different perspective at work in the kingdom of God.
That it isn’t about you, and it isn’t about me, hallelujah, right?
But it is about him, and it’s about Jesus, and it’s about worshipping him, and about following him,
and it’s about his plans and his purposes, and what he is doing in the world today,
and what he is doing in this nation, and what he is doing in this city, and what he is doing across John Thorton,
Baitmore, and through MZS, and through your life and my life together.
And so it’s not about us, and there’s a shift that we need to kind of embrace.
This is about, and this story is about what God is doing.
We call it the story of Joseph, but really it’s just a part of the story of God and what he is doing.
Karen read, if you remember last week, Karen Ince read from Romans 5, and there’s one of the verses she read.
Paul writes that we glory in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance.
Perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
Such a great verse, right? But you see this being worked out in Joseph’s life, don’t you, right now?
You can actually see, yeah, he’s going through suffering, because actually he’s learning through that perseverance.
And through that perseverance, his character is being developed, and you can see that being worked out here.
And so if that’s true, then maybe that is true for you and me as well.
God is going to take us through that stuff, because he wants to produce character in you,
and he wants to produce perseverance in you, and he wants to produce hope in you and me.
Following Jesus is not some comfortable, cushy number. It’s absolutely not a crutch to prop you up.
It’s not there to make everything rosy. It’s there to give our whole souls to.
Jesus himself said, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I’ve overcome the world.
Paul in prison is able to write those letters that we love to read, and he’s able to say,
Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword separate us from the love of God?
No. In all those things we are more than conquerors. He’s able to say that in prison.
You know, his freedom has been curtailed, and that’s what he is able to say.
So this is not a message about from prison to praise. I think it was a book years ago, wasn’t it?
So this is not a book about that. And we love those messages, don’t we?
And we think that’s what it should be about. Yeah, God’s going to set me free from prison.
This is about, no, God’s putting you in prison because he wants you to learn stuff.
Ooh, that’s a bit awkward, isn’t it?
So yet again in Genesis we are confronted by the sovereignty of God.
We might want to argue, but his plans are unfolding in his ways.
And as I said, this is the story of God rather than the story of Joseph.
This chapter is all about how to handle, rather than actually thinking about being a physical prison,
which is obviously what the story is about, this chapter is really all about how to handle being in a place where you don’t want to be,
being in a place where you’re put there by other people’s actions,
being in a place where there are limited options on what you can do,
where perhaps you’ve been wrongly accused, where you’ve been squeezed into a corner,
where you don’t feel that you’re in a great place and you’re trying to understand why am I here and what’s going on
and when is this going to end and how am I going to escape and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And all of us go through those sorts of things in varying degrees
and the question is what is God teaching us through them?
And there are people sat here today who are not in their homeland
because physically they’ve had to move here due to other people’s actions that they’re not in control of.
There are people here today who are battling with life-threatening illnesses that restrict and control what they can or can’t do.
And there are numerous other things I’m sure you can think of, hopefully in your own life, those types of things.
So what has this chapter got to teach us about that?
Because the way I respond to those sort of situations, right, is I start to feel sorry for myself.
Poor me. It’s not fair. I’m not going to look at Anj because she’ll be nodding.
I say it’s not fair. Why me? What have I done to deserve this?
Right? That’s how I would respond.
And I start navel gazing, you know, just kind of disappearing into myself.
I start blaming other people for what has happened.
Why have they been able to do that? Why have they got away with that?
It’s their fault this has happened to me. It’s their fault.
Or if I’m feeling really obnoxious, it’s God’s fault.
Let’s blame God. That’s a good one. It’s your fault, Lord, that this has happened.
And anything but kind of take the semblance of responsibility about what’s happening right now
and blame God and embrace the sort of victim mentality.
Hey, I’m the victim here. This is really hard for me.
Why is this going on? And I would retreat and withdraw.
Or actually maybe I try to get other people on the side, you know, that world famous Facebook post.
Oh no, it’s happened again! And just leave it hanging there and see how many comments you get.
Because that’s how we feel when those sort of things happen.
We want to get people on our side. We want to retreat. We want to blame anybody else.
And that’s a normal way, actually, sadly, of responding to these types of situations.
But notice how all those responses are all about me when we respond like that.
They are powerful emotions and responses that might be seen as natural in today’s world.
But we’re not talking here about today’s world.
We’re talking about being men and women living in the Kingdom of God.
And trying to respond in the way that God teaches us to through His Word.
And the way Jesus is lifting us up to a better way to do life.
So what can Joseph teach us when we find ourselves in these types of situations?
And I’ve got seven quick things, honestly quick.
So number one is in chapter 39 verse 23 we read,
The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
The first thing is how to handle these situations. God was with Joseph.
We have to get a hold of that, right, because he’s in prison.
But God is with him. He’s in prison.
You’re in a difficult situation. You’re in a hard place right now.
But God is with you. You’ve got to get a hold of that.
What this says is that God is working His plans and His promises out right now through what is happening in Joseph’s life.
Those promises to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, the descendants of his numerous of the suns on the seashore and the stars in the sky.
Those plans and promises are being worked out right now at this point in time in Joseph’s life when he’s in prison.
God is with him. And it’s the same for you and me today.
God is working out His plans. He is building His church.
He is making His bride ready for a returning bygroom.
He is at work working out His plans for you and me as part of that.
And whatever situation we find ourselves in, it fits within that bigger context.
And so God is with us. The more we can see that, the better.
That it isn’t about our lives, it is about Him.
It’s about bringing glory to Jesus.
It’s about the Father honouring the Son.
So the first thing that Joseph teaches us here when we’re going through these sort of times is actually having the right perspective.
That it isn’t about me, but I need to look up and I need to see that it is about God and that He is with me.
God is working things out in your life as part of His overall plan for what He’s doing in the world today.
And this sort of sentence, the Lord is with Joseph or the Lord is with us, this is not a feeling or emotion.
This is not a, ooh, I’ve got a shiver down the back or whatever kind of thing.
This is a fact of substance that we need to get a hold of.
That the Lord is with you. If we’re in an American church right now, I’ll get you all to turn to each other and say the Lord is with you.
But if I do that, the Lord is with you. Turn to each other and say the Lord is with you.
And then work on it a bit so that you mean it and believe it next time.
But it’s so important that we get a hold of that with the perspective.
The Sabbath says, even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Why? Because you’re with me. That’s fantastic, isn’t it?
We’ve got to get a hold of those scriptures and bring them into our lives day by day and believe in them and walk in the truth of them day by day.
So the Lord was with Joseph. Second thing, this might be a bit contrived and I might be reading too much into that same verse,
but we read how the warden paid no attention to anything Joseph did because God was with him.
It’s kind of like the warden trusted Joseph, isn’t it?
You know, in a prison situation, the warden was like a trusted friend.
And I just noticed the second thing is when we’re going through those dark times, it’s good to find a trusted friend,
someone we can dump on and share and support us.
So many, many years ago, Anne was spending a lot of time going up and down the M1 to her parents who lived in Kent
and cleaning out their house because they’d gone into a care home.
And the net effect of that was a load of dust got on her lungs and she ended up in hospital in ITU for 10 days.
And there was a bit of a period there where we weren’t sure she was going to make it.
And it was a dark time. But I remember I had a trusted friend in the church that I went round to
and dumped on every day with many tears and words.
And it was such a support as we need those trusted friends that help us and walk with us through those dark times.
That God has given us them for a reason. It’s so key.
Number three, in moving on to chapter 40, in verse 4, we read,
The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, that’s the chief baker and the cupbearer.
The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph and he attended them.
And this just says to me, you know, when you’re going through these dark times and these difficult places,
get on and just attend to what’s in front of you.
What God is putting in front of you. What little thing is he putting in front of you for you to do?
You know, we can get preoccupied with the apparent unfairness of it all
and disappear down the rabbit hole of our own self-fity so easily.
You know, Joseph could have sat there in the prison in a dark corner rocking, you know, waiting for it all to end.
But he doesn’t. Even in this situation, he focuses on what is in front of him,
what God is presenting in front of him and gets on and does it.
And it’s so important at times that God is putting something in front of us that we just step into that and forget it.
In Joseph’s case, because he did this, we know from the story that actually this ultimately leads to his release from prison.
But he didn’t know that at the time. Not at all. He had no idea how long it was going to be there.
And no way out as far as he knew.
But he was faithful in terms of what God has put in front of him.
So number three, attend to what’s in front of you.
Number four, in verses six and seven, when Joseph came to those two guys the next morning,
he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house,
why are your faces so sad today?
And that just says to me, Joseph is putting others first.
This is hard, isn’t it? But he’s kind of developing that same thing a little bit more.
He’s putting other people first before himself in his situation.
He’s investing time and energy into these two guys.
Despite the dire situation that he himself is in of being unfairly in prison.
He’s tending to the needs of others.
And it is true that one of the greatest ways to stop worrying about your own situation
is to apply yourself to help somebody else. It’s always true.
And so we see him putting these other guys first and helping them.
Compare this to how he used to be when he’s bragging to his brothers about his wonderful coat and the dreams that he’s had
and all that kind of stuff that we read a few weeks ago.
He’s a changed guy who’s doing that because suffering has led to perseverance,
has led to character, which has led to hope.
So he’s a changed person. So he’s putting others first.
And for me this is quite a hard one, right? And maybe it is for some of you.
It does mean putting to death the desire to worry about ourselves and our own situation.
And when I think about Jesus dying on the cross and when he said,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, then it will produce much fruit.
And I think this is the kind of stuff he’s talking about.
But when he says something like that, that if we’re prepared to put to death our own preoccupation with ourselves
and worrying about ourselves, then much fruit will come out of that, as happened with Joseph in the story as it goes on here.
What’s that? That’s number four, isn’t it?
Number five is about confidence, having confidence in God.
So in verse eight, they said to him, we’ve both had dreams, they answered, but there’s no one to interpret them.
And Joseph said to them, don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.
There’s only spiritual gifts for all that simple and straightforward, right?
But what we see here is Joseph has an incredible confidence in God, despite the situation that he is in.
He is absolutely confident that God is going to interpret the dreams of these two guys.
He’s sure of it. He trusts God.
Even in the midst of the darkest, most depressing situation, he is confident in his God.
Even with the question of why am I here in prison? What’s going on, God? What are you doing?
He is still confident in his God.
For me, it’s almost like the killer verse in the whole passage, right?
Because it just stands out that, wait a minute, Joseph, you’re in a really difficult place.
But in that place, he’s saying, I am confident in God.
It reminds me, actually, of a Richard Wurmbrandt quote when he was in prison.
He talked about, you know, when he was in prison, he wanted to preach the gospel to the prisoners and the guards,
but the guards didn’t want to preach the gospel, didn’t want him to preach the gospel, so they would beat him up.
So he says, we were both happy. I was happy because I was preaching the gospel,
and the guards were happy because they were beating me up.
Wow. That is, what a challenge that is, right, in terms of confidence in God and perspective.
But for Joseph here, he’s sure about God interpreting the dreams.
And really, this trust in God is, again, about letting go of our insecurities.
I was thinking as we were worshipping earlier how I used to find this type of worship really difficult.
You know, I told you before about my headbanging days in my teenage years.
And then the other thing I was quite passionate about was football a long, long time ago.
You know, and it never ceases to amaze me, you know, the passion that you can see in a football ground on a Saturday
compared to the passion you see in a church on a Sunday.
And I always felt challenged that, you know, just think for a moment what is the most exciting thing you do in your life
that you absolutely love with a passion, and you get stirred up and motivated about it.
Maybe it is football. Maybe it is something else. Maybe it’s gaming, or maybe it’s, I don’t know,
whatever it is that actually stirs you in it. Yeah, yeah, I’m going to really get into this.
And because all of those things are spectacularly irrelevant compared to the eternity of God.
And so when we come to worship and sing our songs, it’s about bringing ourselves to Him and stirring ourselves to praise Him.
And I went through a process of, I don’t want to do this because I’m a bit of an introvert.
I’m a bit of a quiet guy. I don’t want to look obvious.
But you go through a mental process again of actually, okay, I’m going to step out, and I’m going to start saying the words.
Oh, and then I’m going to start meaning the words and singing the song, even though I haven’t got a great voice,
and it won’t be in tune, doesn’t matter.
And then you move from a point of that to actually, I’m going to sing these songs to Jesus.
I’m going to forget about who sat next to me, sorry, or behind me, or in front of me.
And actually this is about me, and we move through that thing, and I want to encourage all of us,
think about those things that you’re really passionate about,
and just get that perspective that Jesus is so much more worthy of our worship and our passion and our love and our adoration.
And when we worship like this morning, which was brilliant, we’re bringing ourselves to Him to do that and get that context.
So Joseph was confident in God, and he trusted that God would be true to His Word.
That was number, what number was that, four? That was five.
Okay, so number six then was, so we go on in verses, I’m not going to read them,
but in the next few verses he interprets the dreams, right?
So number six is use your gifts right where you are. Use what God has given you.
Just get on and do it. Don’t wait for the time to be right, because it never will.
Don’t wait to be in a better place.
You know, Joseph didn’t sit there and think, thanks for your dreams, lads.
I could normally interpret them, but I’m not in a great place right now.
I’ll tell you what, when I get out of prison, come and find me and tell me again,
and I’m sure then I’ll be in a much better place and I’ll be able to tell you what they mean.
He doesn’t do that, does he? He gets on and uses the gifts that God has given him right in that place.
Don’t say, when God has fixed this for me, when I’m out of here, when life is better,
then I’ll use what God has given me.
Get on with it right now, right where you are, in the mess, because then you see God move.
Then you see God move.
I remember, you know, sometimes I confess when I come to church on a Sunday,
and be grumpy. Anybody else have that experience?
You know, and a bit washed off with things and whatever, generally, you know.
Is it just me? A bit worrying now, okay.
Okay, it is just me, oh dear.
And then we’re singing the songs and I’m kind of, you know,
bless you Lord, own my soul, yeah, yeah, okay.
And I’m waiting for the next one, and going through that.
And then that, sometimes when that happens, God, I feel God’s given me a word.
You’ve got to be kidding, Lord.
You know, I’m not in a good place.
You know, I’m grumpy. I don’t want to do that.
Do it to somebody else, or can we do it next week?
And I know the way this works.
You have to get on and do it then, and eventually I have to swallow my pride,
and get on and do that, despite one thing.
You know, get on and use your gifts in the dark place,
or the bad place that you’re in, or the hard place that you’re in,
as he is giving them to you.
Okay, that was number six, and number seven, and the final thing.
I just want to read verses 14 and 15.
Well, Jesus says this,
When all goes well with you, so he’s saying this to the cupbearer after his interpretation.
When all goes well with you, as in you get out of prison and you’re back in your job,
please remember me and show me kindness.
Mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison,
for I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews,
and even here I’ve done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.
And this says to me, it’s important, guys, to be grounded,
and realistic about where we are.
And this is a tension, right?
Because this is about Joseph holding to the fact that I really am in prison here,
I really don’t want to be here, I really want to get out,
but at the same time I’m trusting God, and I’m looking to see God work,
and I’m looking to see God move.
And it’s really hard holding those two things together, isn’t it?
But that’s what he’s doing, he’s grounded.
He’s not, for example, you know, we can’t read this
and think he is some kind of super spiritual mega-saint
who’s just walking so close to Jesus,
he hasn’t really noticed that he’s in a prison,
and he’s just floating along and the Holy Spirit’s whooshing over him,
and he’s going, ooh, ooh, ooh, you’re so into pure dreams, yes, yes,
praise the Lord, hallelujah.
No, he’s not doing that.
He’s fully aware of the reality of the place that he’s in.
He doesn’t want to be there.
He wants to get out, but at the same time he’s still looking,
because there’s no religious superficiality about him.
And we’ve got to watch that ourselves sometimes,
because we can sometimes get a little bit over spiritual.
Equally, we can bury our head in the ground and think,
there’s no God here because I’m in this place.
He doesn’t do that either.
Both of those options are incorrect.
There’s a middle ground that we have to walk through
where we recognize the pain of the difficult place we’re in,
but at the same time God is at work.
There’s no escapism in Joseph.
And it’s really important that we hold that together in our own lives
and as we walk through things together.
So that’s seven things.
So if you feel you’re in a dark place today,
if you feel you’re in a confined space,
if you’re unsure of the end,
if you’re thinking, how long is this going to be?
If you’re saying to God, how long am I going to be here?
What’s going on?
I want to encourage us this morning.
Maybe there’s some things we can do to help us.
Maybe we can just reflect on the fact that the Lord is with us.
Maybe there is a trusted friend we can go to and just jump on
and stand with and pray with.
Just attend to what God is putting in front of you.
Don’t try and think about trying to fix everything or sort everything out,
but just attend to what is in front of you.
Learn what it is to put others first
despite the difficulty of the situation that you might be in.
And trust in God.
Step out in faith and trust in God that he’s still with you
and will still use you in that situation.
Don’t think that I’ve got to wait till this is all sorted
before I’m going to see God working in me.
No, trust in God.
Use the gifts that he’s given you and finally remain grounded.
Hold these two things in tension.
I don’t really want to be here.
I want to get out of this situation,
but I’m going to look to see God at work.
Because eventually, as we see in the story of Joseph,
holding those two things together, he actually leads to his freedom.
So I’m going to finish now, but I’d like just to pray if we can.
Maybe you’re listening this morning and you think,
yeah, I say I’m in a bit of a, not a physical prison,
but I sense a bit of a prison in my own life.
I’m restricted.
And I want to encourage you just to respond to Jesus.
We’re going to worship a little bit more.
If the ban could come back, that would be great.